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He's a Marine, he's AWOL, he's my cousin.

04:00 / 25.03.03

I just received the news that a one of my relatives is absent without leave from his unit. He's a US Marine and he was on active duty here in the States, and shortly after this entire war fiasco began he went missing. His commanding officer contacted his mother (with whom he lives) trying to find him, and MPs have been to his house to confirm that he wasn't hiding on the premises. He isn't though -- his mom is flipping out because no one in our entire extended family has any idea where he's gone. He's just vanished.

So... absent without leave from a combat unit during time of war. Am I imagining things or do they put you in front of a firing squad for that? I'm not exactly close to him (he's my father's cousin's son, what is that, third cousin? Second cousin once removed?) but I grew up with him and he's a blood relative. And he's nineteen. I can't believe he would just disappear like this though. He wanted to enlist, and supposedly he was ready and eager to go overseas. Real gung-ho Marine type. Right now my family's only consolation is that maybe he didn't decide to quietly hide away somewhere -- maybe he's in a coma in a hospital or lying facedown in a ditch on some back road. At least in that case he wouldn't face criminal charges. Hooray.

I don't know. I'm upset and it's late and I needed to vent somewhere.

Does anyone have better information on the sorts of punishments meted out for going AWOL? Imprisonment, dishonorable discharge, so forth? What sort of mitigating circumstances might apply?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

04:21 / 25.03.03

I have no idea what kind of disciplinary procedures they have, but I thought I'd post to wish you (and him) well. That's gotta be fucking scary.

08:21 / 25.03.03

Hey for what it's worth, my grandpa, who's now 80, went AWOL at the end of WWII because he got so drunk celebrating the end of the war that he missed his plane back to the U.S. from Australia. Sure that was different, but the point is, he lived and now he laughs about it.

I hope your cousin gets found. I don't blame you for worrying, but truth be told I'm sure this is something that happens to soldiers when war breaks out. When he's found, he will be punished, but don't worry, not put up against a firing squad.

Huggles.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

08:54 / 25.03.03

I'm not an expert, but I think you may be confusing "in time of war" with "in the heat of battle". The latter was a capital crime in some countries in the last century - I have no idea about now.

09:09 / 25.03.03

People used to get shot for deserting in the face of the enemy - largely pour encourager les autres - especially if they were rank and file troops. Going AWOL isn't quite the same thing. Hope you find him soon.

13:48 / 25.03.03

If I remember correctly the punishment for going AWOL's not too harsh. A drop in rank, some time in jail and so on. It's when it turns into desertion when you really get into trouble. When you desert there's all kinds of nifty things that can happen, death, dishonorable discharge; basically you get court-martialed and they decide what's done.

Oh here we go, check out this , I'm not sure how up to date it is, but it talks about desertion and the punishments of such.

pointless and uncalled for

15:00 / 25.03.03

From a reliable source I am advised that the standard punishment is imprisonment for time AWOL. This could be made more or less severe depending on related circumstances. This is, however, the UK approach.

18:43 / 25.03.03

We had several people go awol in the 3rd Infantry Division when I was in. Believe it or not, those who were gone for just a few weeks and came back voluntarily had to do a little bit of extra work around the Fort, and both eventually got promoted like nothing had ever happened.

The one guy who was AWOL for almost a year, was found working in the town right beside Ft Stewart. He was given a dishonorable discharge, and I believe spent a few days in a Ft. Knox stockade while they processed his paperwork there. There was no war going on during any of these AWOLs though, so I'm not sure if the penalty's any stiffer, but I imagine it is. You may be able to find a UCMJ book online which could go into more detail.

20:36 / 25.03.03

Are soldiers not protected by the legal precedent of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal for not carrying out orders because they're morally a big pile of shit?

It seems like it may be related, and I've wanted that confirmed for a while. But then it is and international law, and therefore probablly no one cares anymore...

Tryphena Absent

20:43 / 25.03.03

Fingers crossed for you, I hope he turns up soon.

pointless and uncalled for

08:08 / 27.03.03

Trying to apply Nuremburg would be very difficult. Firstly you would have to prove that the orders were illegal. Easy as that may be to decide for those of us fortunate enough to be socialist about the whole matter, this is not a cut and dried situation at all.

Secondly a court martial proceeding would have to be used to determine if the AWOLee in question did refuse to follow the orders on the grounds that they were illegal. For all we know he just plain decided to spend a month getting pissed in Sausolito.

Thirdly the court martial proceedings would then have to determine if the manner in which the orders were disobeyed was suitable and appropriate to the situation. AWOL probably won´t cut it unless it meets exceptional circumstances.